6 Ways to Improve Your Landing Pages

Landing Pages are an important part of any online strategy. Geared at getting a visitor to take a very specific action, landing page strategy and optimization can help your accounting firm generate leads. The best places to use landing pages are related to valuable content your firm can share or through leadership your firm is producing. Ideal situations for accounting firms might include webinar/event registration, newsletter/RSS sign-ups, whitepaper or survey finding access, or other unique resources. It is not appropriate to use landing pages for your blogs.  Here are 6 ways you can improve your accounting firm’s landing pages.

• Use strong headlines. Headlines play an important role in landing pages. Visitors can come from any number of sources to get to your landing page, but they all want to find exactly what they are looking for. One of the first things a visitor should see is your headline. Your landing page headline should be direct, clear and link to the language that drove them to the page. For example, if you are offering a newsletter subscription, the page headline should indicate they have arrived at the newsletter subscription page.
• Strip your website navigation. True landing pages shouldn’t have the same navigation as the rest of your website pages. The more options you give someone to leave the page, the higher the likelihood they won’t see the path you want them to move down. By removing things like website navigation, you focus the visitor on the one action you want them to take.
• Keep your copy focused and brief. Landing pages are about one thing. Make sure you copy is focused on that one thing you want your visitor to do, and don’t make it too long. There is nothing more annoying than a never-ending scrolling page. Talk about the benefits, include credible information like testimonials or video previews on the page, and present your call to action – then close the page.
• Keep your calls to action above the fold. Your calls to action (CTA) should be clear and stand out. They also need to be what is called “above the fold,” or in the first half of the computer screen, before your visitors need to scroll. People naturally read from left to right in an F-pattern, so CTAs should also be placed in the upper left or right corners.
• Emphasize your CTAs. Make sure your CTA stands out. Including graphics and color schemes that don’t blend in with the rest of your website will help draw the visitor’s eyes toward your CTA.
• Keep web forms simple. The amount of information you ask for should be relative to the action you’d like people to take. Don’t ask for more than you really need. Signing up for a newsletter should require no more than a name and email address, while registering for a free consultation should require more information. Also, keep your forms clean and easy to read. Don’t get kitchy with your form fields. Ensure they are inviting by building in plenty of white space.

Truly optimizing your landing pages will require a little testing. Play around with your headlines, web forms, graphics and copy to see what works best. Some landing page platforms offer A/B Split Testing. If this isn’t available to you, simply pick one variable to test over a period of time to see which version results in better conversions